Unleashing the Power of Cognitive Graphic Organizer

Cognitive graphic organizers are effective tools to use with students because they foster critical and creative thinking, guide students to prevent faulty reasoning and help ESL students organize their thinking using minimal amount of words. In this interactive session, teachers see how to use and will compare the use of two and three -dimensional high level thinking graphic organizers. Graphic organizers will focus on the use of vocabulary as well as critical thinking verbs such as prioritize and judge, and creative thinking verbs such as connect and brainstorm. Topics include:

• Six purposes for using graphic organizers
• Six specific ways to use graphic organizers
• Shared procedural language that targets each graphic organizer verb
• Examples of critical and creative thinking graphic organizers with simple or abstract content.

These graphic organizers can be applied to most content and across most grade levels.

Patti Drapeau is an educational consultant, internationally known presenter and author. Patti is a presenter in the United States and abroad where she presents keynote and break out conference sessions as well as short and long-term workshops. Her presentation topics include: creativity, differentiation, personalized learning, engagement strategies, student empowerment and meeting the needs of special populations. Patti is on the part time faculty at the University of Southern Maine where she teaches courses in gifted education. She is also a consultant for the Maine Department of Education. Patti is the author of Sparking Student Creativity Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving (ASCD, 2014), Great Teaching with Graphic Organizers 2nd edition revised and updated (Hawker Brownlow, 2010), Differentiating with Graphic Organizers Tools to Foster Critical and Creative Thinking (Corwin Press, 2008), Differentiated Instruction: Making It Work (Scholastic, 2004) and Great Teaching with Graphic Organizers (Scholastic, 1998). She authored a variety of articles for the Maine Exchange, Teaching Matters, and Understanding our Gifted. Patti has over twenty-five years of classroom experience teaching students and coordinating programs in Freeport, Maine. She coached Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solving, Explorer Vision, and math teams. Patti received the New England Region Gifted and Talented award for outstanding contributions in gifted education and the Maine Educators of the Gifted and Talented award for exemplary service.

Prioritizing professional wellbeing because ‘It’s not just how I teach, it is who I am’

The premise of this workshop rests on the notion that “we teach who we are” (Palmer, 2007). Our attitudes, emotions, and motivations define how we teach and interact in our classrooms and are critical to our professional behaviours. This means that to teach to the best of our abilities, we need to nurture our professional wellbeing. Indeed, research suggests that attending to the welfare of teachers is not only good for the teachers themselves, but also for their learners psychologically and academically as well as the institution as a whole. Therefore, I suggest that all professional development needs to begin by examining teacher psychology ensuring we are in the right place to develop as teachers and people. Through a series of interactive activities and reflection tasks, we will consider why language teacher psychology is so important, why it has perhaps been somewhat neglected, and what we can do in terms of research as well as practical interventions for individuals and organizations to promote language teacher wellbeing.

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology and Deputy Head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Arts and Humanities. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area including, ‘Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept’, ‘Psychology for Language Learning’, ‘Multiple Perspectives on the Self’ in SLA’, ‘New Directions in Language Learning Psychology’, ‘Positive Psychology in SLA’, ‘Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers’ (Winner of the IH Ben Warren Prize), and ‘Language Teacher Psychology’

Differentiated Instruction for English Language Teachers: A Means of Empowering Learners and Teachers Alike

Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that advocates active planning for and attention to learners’ differences in classrooms, in the context of high quality curricula. In this talk, I review the essential underpinnings of differentiated instruction and then go on to look into (a) practical aspects of going beyond the one-size-fits-all delivery system and (b) ways in which ESOL teachers can reflect on and evaluate the impact of their own practice in the differentiated classroom context. In this light, I also present evidence for highlighting the central role appropriately trained English language teachers can play in developing core skills for work and life (as defined by world-renowned institutions like UNESCO) in their learners and how differentiated instruction can play an invaluable role in this.

Nicos C. Sifakis is a tenured associate professor in the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University (HOU) in Greece. He holds a B.A. (first class honours) in Computational Linguistics and a Ph.D. in language and linguistics from the University of Essex, UK. He is director of the Master’s in Education (M.Ed.) in TESOL programme of the HOU and has been involved in it since its inception in 1998, also being involved in the production of educational materials as a distance education methodology advisor, and is the author and co-author of the study guides for the language skills and English for specific purposes (ESP) modules used in that programme. He is founder and editor-in-chief of Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning (http://rpltl.eap.gr/). He has published more than 70 research papers, which appear in various international refereed journals (among others, TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, ESP Journal, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language and Education, System), edited collections and conference proceedings. He acts as a regular external referee for Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, ESP Journal, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, System, Open Education and Adult Education. His research interests include intercultural communication and pedagogy, teaching and researching English as an international lingua franca, language teaching methodology, distance education, adult education and teacher education. His book The English Language and Globalisation: Facets of present-day reality in Greece, Europe and the rest of the world. (Athens: Herodotus) was published in February 2012.

A relational perspective on language education for a globalized world

In a globalized world, multicultural classrooms and against the backdrop of English as a Lingua Franca, we need communicative competences that are not culture-specific but which focus on how to communicate and cooperate effectively across and within a range of cultural contexts. To this end, I argue that understanding how to build and maintain relationships in the classroom and through language use beyond the classroom is central to effective language education. Together we will reflect on and explore our own interpersonal, socio-emotional competences as educators as well as consider how we can foster these same skills in our learners.

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology and Deputy Head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Arts and Humanities. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area including, ‘Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept’, ‘Psychology for Language Learning’, ‘Multiple Perspectives on the Self’ in SLA’, ‘New Directions in Language Learning Psychology’, ‘Positive Psychology in SLA’, ‘Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers’ (Winner of the IH Ben Warren Prize), and ‘Language Teacher Psychology’